Figured I would get something going for anybody that likes to follow football as well. The 1st round is being shown during Primetime television this evening for the first time in the history of the draft. A very "deep" draft according to all of the draft experts.

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Planning on attending a game at Fenway over Memorial Day weekend while the Royals are in Beantown clobbering the Red Sox. Pure coincidence that the Royals will be in town while my wife and I are there for our anniversary. I know we have Royals fans all over the country on here so I was hoping that somebody would be from Boston or have a familiarity with Fenway. Has anybody from the RR community attended a game in Boston or have any suggestions on buying tickets?

Obviously, you do not have to know how to pronounce Major League Baseball players names to work for MLBtv. I don't blame the anchor as there should be someone in the studio that knows how to pronounce every name for every team. You could pay some dude 30k a year to know this and he would probably be happy as could be to fill this role.

Just to fill those of you that do not watch MLBtv in, we had Mitch "Mayor" filling in for Crisp and Alberto "Kay-ah-spo" starting at second base. Can I see these pronunciations being legit at first glance...yes. Should a MLB tv network get these wrong...no! I'm sure it happens with other teams as well, but I probably just don't pay as much attention.

Sorry for the rant, I'm all about the rant tonight I guess. Too much whiskey!!!!

I know this is a baseball site, but judging by the number of entries in the RR Bracket Challenge I feel it is safe to assume that a lot of you are interested in the tournament. Would it be okay to keep a running thread through the first two rounds at least for some smack talk and general banter?

Going into the late games on opening day of the tournament:

PopeSoria leads the pack with a perfect 12 of 12

There are many tied with 11 on down to 7

Our fearless leader is one of those tied for....well...last with 7 of 12 correct games picked. I only say this with the utmost respect as I am only 1 pick ahead at 8 of 12.

Since I actually get to see a game for the first time, albeit on tape delay, I thought I would post some observations. Here goes:

Top 1 - Mike Jacobs takes two outside pitches from the lefty for strikes and then looks very comfortable fouling off the next two outside pitches to stay alive. I was very impressed with his approach after being down 0-2, and obviously it paid off with a nice jack to right-center.

Bot 1 - Gordon shows very nice range to his left to start a possible DP, good turn by Bloomquist but not in time. Olivo shows off gun, spoils attempted steal to end inning. Both very promising!

Top 2 - Crisp draws another walk, like his BB stats this spring. I believe that is 11 BB's to only 3 K's.

Bot 2 - Hoch falls behind 3-0, battles back to get the K, impressive!

Top 3 - Jacobs, same situation (down 0-2), but reaches out to foul one off and ends up putting it in play for a 6-4-3 DP. After nice AB drawing a BB, Olivo makes bad mistake and gets caught between 1st and 2nd.

Bot 3 - Hoch working ahead in the count, nice to see.

Top 4 - Teahen flies out to CF, oops.....I mean hits a HR! Nice swing, as was his swing in the 2nd, but I don't think it gets out at most parks. TPJ actually impressing me with going the other way for the second straight AB, nice to see him stop swinging for the fences. Oh, and I'm not a TPJ lover but damn does he have an arm from short!

Bot 4 - Fred Lewis is fast! Giants starting to put good wood on the ball 2nd time through. But Hoch gets some help from the slick fielding Jacobs and an inning-ending DP. Looked like a GG'er over there at 1st!

Top 5 - Jacobs making a nice impression on me in this game with another hard hit ball for a double. (Disclaimer: only my first time being able to watch him play) However, I would not send him home on a shallow ball in LF. Interesting note: 3 consecutive LH batters in the lineup, only ST but I found it interesting regardless.

Bot 5 - Not sure if the radar gun is that accurate in this game, but starting to notice that Hoch's fastball is a lot slower than I thought. (high 80's) And on that note, Hoch walks a guy and gets the rest of the day off. Wow!! Heath Phillips is a large man! And not a bad pitcher to boot! And I can't stop using exclamation points!!!! Damn whiskey.

Top 6 - Seriously, TPJ has 3 hits in the game and actually looks like a ML hitter...just weird. But he's really not very fast, please don't send him often. Crisp does a nice job hitting to the right side with a runner on 2nd, it's the little things folks!

Okay, duty calls and I have to give my time to the fiancee. Damn Sunday nights! Please leave your observations of the game if you are/were watching and feel free to comment on mine. Mostly positive observations, btw, if you didn't already notice.

I didn't think I would watch much of the WBC, but I gotta tell ya'll....I've had fun watching the Netherlands upset the Dominican Republic and quite possibly Puerto Rico. They are leading by one in the 8th as I type, gotta pull for the underdog! Just curious to see what level of interest it has caused among real baseball fans here at RR. Aviles doubled today and I believe Olivo went deep, just interesting tidbits.